Birthday WEEK!

We are all about dragging out the birthday fun around here!

On Wednesday, my parents brought over Cal's first birthday present: a train table!!!  We were so excited about him having this.  It is really neat and he LOVES it!  My dad assembled the table and my mom put the whole track together and glued it all down so he couldn't tear it apart (smart move, mom).  They brought it over in my dad's truck and Cal went out to see and kept saying "choo choo in poppa's truck!"

It is a great source of entertainment around here and we are loving it! It was also a huge hit at Cal's birthday party....

On Thursday, Cal had school, so Eddie and I took cupcakes to his class at the end of lunch.  Some of the kids were a little skeptical, but others were ready to chow down!  Cal was SO excited to see both of his parents there!  When we started singing, Cal joined right in and sang along- ha!

Then, on Friday, Cal's actual birthday, my parents came over in the morning to give Cal the rest of his gifts from them. 

a new fireman's coat!

having poppa help him open

a super cool wooden fire truck-- he loooooves this one

waiting patiently for the next gift (my heart melts)

a Nordstrom hanger! (with a sport coat)

so, Cal is going to wear this blazer for Andy's baptism (and to church, etc).  When he opened it, he said "like daddy?" So he wants to wear the blazer all the time now because he thinks he looks like daddy.... how sweet is that??

After we opened gifts from mom and dad, we went to Red Robin for lunch! They sang to him and brought out a sundae and he thought it was just the greatest thing ever!

Friday night, Eddie's sister got into town for the party weekend. 
Saturday, TCU had a game, so we all got decked out in our gear...  I had a bunch of baking to do so Cal helped "wash" with CB.

he was soaked by the end of this

and since we are talking about game day, Andy decided to go a little thug-like for this game

"what up, yo?"

Cal didn't want Andy to be the only thug.  He put on saggy jeans and a hoodie.  Just 'cause, you know, that's how we roll.

A billion cupcakes, cookies, and a TCU win later, we were about ready for the big PARTAY!  (are you tired yet?)

CalBoy is TWO!

My sweet, sweet little CalBoy is TWO!

It has been a fun, action-packed week and I am going to try to do a few posts from it all to avoid one overly long post!

Cal has his 24 month check up in 2 weeks so I will update his stats then in a separate post.

I have been kind of a mess this week... I just can't believe my baby is TWO years old!  I seriously feel like he was just curled up in my arms as an infant.  Time is flying by and I am just loving every minute (well, the whole getting naked part is hard, but really, I still love it all....).  I love being Cal's mommy and there is nothing in the world like him wrapping his arms around his neck telling me he loves me...

This past week:

-- my parents gave him his first gift: a train table!
-- Eddie and I took cupcakes to his class for his birthday
-- Eddie's sister, Carrie, came to town, then his mom came on Sunday
-- We had the big party for the birthday boy!

It's been so much fun celebrating our little man...and now I am exhausted!  Andy has started waking up (a lot) during the night (like, last night it was FOUR times...), so all of the excitement on top of no sleep makes me one hot mess.....

I am working on the blog posts from this week, so be patient with me!  My mother-in-law is still here so she can help out with the boys!

Ohhhh, Tooodles!!!!

You might not find this very funny... but it. cracks. me. up.

On Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, when they want their "Mousekatools" to come out, they all put their hand up to their mouth and shout: "Ohhh, toodles!"  Well, Cal was playing with Mickey stickers yesterday morning (see video), and I guess thought he should call for some Mousekatools as well...

Brad's Birthday Party

Once again-- another post with BRAD in it! We aren't obsessed-- I swear!

On Sunday, we had Brad's birthday party at Playnation-- I've written about this place before... lots of things to jump on, climb on, play on...it's a fun place!

We had a great time celebrating our best bud, Brad!

I love this-- SUCH a little boy: scratched knee, bruised arm and leg, sneakers on, reaching for a golf club.  I love this kid.

We had a great time celebrating Brad!  

Hard to believe that this weekend we will be celebrating CAL turning two!!!  ACK!  Cue the tears....

UNC Football

This past weekend we were fortunate enough to be invited to the Carolina football game with some friends.  She suggested bringing the kids, and I was very hesitant because it was a 12:30 kick, but she was bringing her kids, and she also invited another family with their kids, so if it was going to be a disaster, at least we would all be together.

The seats were in the new section of Kenan Stadium, The Blue Zone, and let me tell you-- THAT is the way to go to a football game with kids!  There is a corridor behind the seats that is air conditioned and has food and drinks for free.  There were kids running wild up there, and no cared!  It was funny because at about half time, kids were starting to drop like flies for their nap times, and parents just put them on the couches/strollers/ on shoulders, and the kids just crashed in the AC! Everywhere you looked, there were kids asleep.

We started the day at Top of the Hill.  Cal LOVED being outside and looking down at all of the cars, trucks, and buses that went by.  

what would a game day be without a little bloody mary??

family shot on top of Top of the Hill.  Andy is just working those fingers! (and I think I look like a linebacker in this picture)

After Top of the Hill, we started the walk across campus to Kenan Stadium.  I put Andy in the stroller and Cal and Eddie walked together...

I can't get enough of this picture

When we got to the game, we were all pretty hot and stinky, but I knew my parents had seats in the section and I wanted to look for them... I turned around and my mom was standing within arm's reach of me!  They have ah-mazing seats at these games.  They happened to be in the shade (which they weren't for the last game, it was just timing for this game), and they are in little desk-like swivel chairs and they even have their own little TV at their seats!  It's crazy!  They are not like bleacher seats at all-- it's more like they are sitting at a bar...

Cal loved sitting there with them watching the game. Oh, and those white cups?  Did I mention that they sell beer in the Blue Zone?  Those are my cups...it was a loooong day.

 The boys did SOOOOOO well at the game.  It was kind of shocking.  Cal loved watching the field and he made sure to clap anytime the rest of the stadium clapped!  He didn't want to be left out!  Andy spent most of the game sound asleep in the Bjorn.  He was a trooper!  He would wake up for a little bit and then crash again.  I was able to nurse him in the family bathroom without a problem (again, so thankful for some AC!)

clapping away!

The other family that went was Brad's family (I always talk about Brad being Cal's buddy, but Eddie and I are just as much buddies with Brad's parents....ha!).  The boys had a great time together, as always!

me and sally :)

the boys standing up on mom's "bar"

and this is what it looked like from down in the seats-- pretty cute kiddos, if you ask me!

Cal was hanging in there, like a champ-- no fussing at all, and then he put his head down on Eddie's shoulder...and was out like a light!  Eddie was in the sun, so he handed him to my mom, where Cal grabbed about an hour long nap on my mom's shoulder...

 Andy woke up, so I had to get a picture of my little sweet potato french fry....

check out those rolls on the arm....and the HUGE hands!

Grandma removed the hat so he could cool off a bit-- that's some gooooood snoozin'!

 While Cal napped, Eddie and I came inside for a few minutes and a sweet woman offered to take a picture of us...I love Andy's face in this one-- cracks me up!

We ended up staying at the game until the end...! And then walking back and Andy in the Bjorn and Cal in the stroller.  I thought I was going to pass out by the time we got to the car.  PHEW!  We got home and Eddie and I were exhausted from a day full of...FUN... and Cal was wired and ready to go.  I think we needed to just go pass out, but when you have two little ones, there is none of that allowed!  I did, however, crawl in bed by 9:30....ahem.....

It was SUCH a fun day, and I am not sure Cal and Andy could have handled going to the game and sitting anywhere else.  I hope to go back to another game, but maybe going without the babies...??

And, can I give a huge shout out to my iPhone?  All of these pictures were taking from my phone since I wasn't able to lug my camera in too-- not too bad for a camera phone, right???

Andy's first playdate

Andy was invited to join a sweet little play group and we were super excited to go this morning while Cal was in school! Andy is the youngest; the kids range in age from 4 months (Andy) to 12 months, but they will all be running together in no time!

This is Lee with Andy:

 Again with Lee:

And here is the group, from youngest to oldest:

Andy: 4 months, Lee: 6.5 months, Alston: 8 months, Presley: 9 months, Eliza: 12 months

It was so much fun getting to spend this time with Andy and his new buddies (okay, I loved seeing their moms too....).

School...and weather!

Cal had his first day of "school" this week!  He is going to the same place he did for his camp, so he was totally familiar with the place, and walked in like a pro!  He will be going Tuesdays and Thursdays this year, and I am really looking forward the experience for him. 

On Tuesday morning, we woke up and took a look outside...the skies were PITCH black and looked like they were about to open up.  There were all kinds of severe weather warnings out...perfect!

We had to take a few pictures before leaving the house...

First Day of School: September 6, 2011

(the nerd in me really wants to get pictures in front of this door for all of the first days....ideally we would have been outside, but it started raining by this point)

As I was loading up the car with Andy, Cal, and Cal's stuff, it started raining quite a bit.  Perfect for drop off with a baby!!!  We pulled up to the school and I had my wipers on high- it was raining that hard.  I would have left Andy in the car and run Cal in, but it was his first day and I didn't know if it would take me a little longer doing drop off, or if I would need to stay for any reason...

Ready for the rain:

I opened up my tailgate hatch and got out Andy's stroller... OH-- did I mention I don't own an umbrella?  WHO DOESN'T OWN AN UMBRELLA? And then got Andy out of the car and snapped into the stroller under the tailgate.  I then ran around to Cal's side and tried to get him out of the carseat, while the rain was coming down sideways into the car, on him.  He kept saying "wet, momma! Wet! No momma!" and started pushing my hands away because my rain coat was dripping water on him.  I got him out of the car finally and put him in the trunk of my car standing up while I gathered all of our stuff (I own an SUV....I wasn't putting him in the trunk of a sedan....).  The water was flowing in the parking lot up over my feet (thank goodness I was wearing flip flops) and up to my ankles...literally. 

I was parked next to the curb so I had to lift the stroller up (there wasn't a ramp near us) onto the sidewalk (in the pouring down rain) (umbrella-less) while I ran back to grab Cal out of the trunk and shut the doors.  WHEW!  We took off running towards the school.  I was half dragging Cal to get in the building and someone saw us coming and quickly opened the door so we could make a dash straight inside.  We were drenched!  Cal was cracking up, so it wasn't too bad on him. I was going to take more pictures at the school, but who wants pictures of dripping wet people?

We got to Cal's class and he walked right in and was happy as could be!  After staying for about 10 minutes, he gave me and Andy a kiss and we left! By the time we left, the rain was barely a drizzle...

I went to run some errands and then I headed home to feed Andy.  At around 11:30, I was going out to run more errands when my friend called me and told me there was a tornado warning for my part of town.  I was in my garage and turned back around and walked in the house.  Sure enough, when I turned on the TV, the Doppler showed a tornado warning for my street, and was pretty specific as to where it was heading-- towards Cal's preschool (he is right down the road from me).  I was a little nervous about him at school, but I knew they would have it under control. 

Long story short, everything was fine, there was never a tornado near us, just some really crazy storms.  At Cal's school, they all went into the bathrooms for the warning-- that is their procedure for tornadoes.  Can you even imagine trying to corral all of those kids into the bathroom??

There was a clearing in the storm around 12:25, so I hustled out and picked him up!  He was so happy to see me and had had a great day.  I walked up and he said "HEY! Hey, momma! Hey!" and then he looked at his teacher and said "das momma!" It was soooooo sweet.

That's a lot of excitement in one day!  He took a great nap when he got home...I think between the first day of school, the running in the rain, the tornado warning in the bathroom and the dark weather outside, it was perfect for napping! I know I was exhausted!!!

I am sure there will be many more pictures from school this year.  So fun!

TCU: Go Frogs

It's that time of year again!!!

I LOVE COLLEGE FOOTBALL!

TCU had their season opener this past Friday, so of course, I had to put the boys in some TCU gear and attempt some pictures.  The outcome of the game wasn't what we had hoped, but the O Line looked pretty good, so that's promising, and these little Frogs looked pretty good too...

And, obviously, there had to be some bloopers...

where do I begin with all that is wrong with this one? Spit up pouring out? Cal screaming? Eyes shut?

Pretty sure Andy was trying to latch on...Cal was none too thrilled

snuggle time??

31 Candles

How can I possibly be 31 years old? Seriously.  Wasn't I JUST turning 21?  GAH, 31 sounds so old!  I'd like to think that I still act like a teenager, but this morning I woke up after sleeping funny and my back has been killing me all day.  Isn't that just something an OLD person would say??

Actually, I don't really care (that much) about getting older.  I am really happy with my life right now and I feel incredibly blessed every day, so really, I can't complain too much.

Also helping with the getting older process: celebrating with the family!!!

My family all gets together when it's one of our birthdays, and since my brother and I have birthday 5 days apart (we had the same due date!), we celebrated together!  It was a gorgeous afternoon and we all got together on mom and dad's back deck.  The kids had a blast playing and singing Happy Birthday, and I had a BLAST hanging out with the family... and drinking champagne! (also, side note: have y'all ever had Vinho Verde from Trader Joes?  It is a sparkling wine and it is AH-MAZING! Makes me happy/giddy...can't help but be in a good mood when drinking that!)

"you're HOW old??"

Thank you to those of you on Facebook that took the time to write on my wall :)  I love hearing from everyone!

Here's to another wonderful year!!!  Wonder what this year will bring.....